EDMONTON - Edmonton’s Animal Blood Clinic is desperate for an infusion of new canine donors to help them shore up dwindling blood supplies.

“We didn’t have enough donors to even fulfil our normal blood drive for this month,” says Shauna Lesick, the co-ordinator of the blood bank, located on the NAIT campus.

“We try to collect between 21 and 25 donations a month, and we’re at less than half that right now.”

The clinic is essentially a satellite collection site for the Canadian Animal Blood Bank, a non-profit organization located in Winnipeg. Blood products collected here are sent there for processing, then distributed across the country.

Clinics in and around Edmonton get their fair share, and no one knows better than veterinarian Dave Fowler the importance of having an adequate supply of blood on hand for his furry patients.

“We are doing blood transfusions on almost a daily basis,” says Fowler, who is one of two surgeons at the Guardian Veterinary Centre, a 24/7 specialty and emergency vet clinic.

The clinic handles difficult and highly complex cases, performing an average of 20 surgeries a week. Fully 80 per cent of its patients are dogs.

Lesick, meanwhile, says a stagnant donor base, coupled with lack of public awareness of the clinic’s existence, has presented challenges in its search for new — and more — donors.

“Part of the problem is that we’ve had a lot of the same donors for a number of years, and as they retire, no new ones are coming forward,” says Lesick.

Dogs can’t give blood beyond the age of eight. Canine donors have to weigh at least 23 kilograms to be considered, and ideally be between the ages of one and six. Labradors and retrievers are especially well-suited for the job, says Lesick, because of their easygoing personality; ditto for Rottweilers. Greyhounds usually make good candidates, too, because they have more red cells in their blood than the average dog, something which makes them so fleet-footed.

“Really, though, any breed can do it,” says Lesick. “It’s really more about weight and attitude — we’re looking for dogs that are generally happy.”

The clinic books 20-minute appointments, but most of that time is spent gathering information from the dog’s owner to ensure their pet isn’t dehydrated or anemic. The collection itself only takes between three and five minutes.

The bags are human-sized, which is to say a pint is collected from each dog. Aso similar to their human counterparts, their time and generosity are rewarded with a cookie.

“Well, more than one, actually,” laughs Lesick. “They get lots of cookies — unless they have food allergies, in which case we ask the owners to bring their own cookies when they come.”

Understanding that many dog owners are otherwise occupied during the day, the clinic operates between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on specific days.

Lesick says people who want more information should email her at shaunal@nait.ca, or call 780-491-1324.

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